1) Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for manufacturing parts having complex geometries, and more particularly, to methods and systems for manufacturing, such as incremental sheet forming (ISF) manufacturing, of parts having complex geometries with multiple central axes, using tool path algorithms generating a continuous helical tool path.
2) Description of Related Art
Sometimes it is desirable to bring air vehicles that are out of service or no longer in commercial production, back into service. Such air vehicles, e.g., heritage aircraft and rotorcraft, may require replacement parts or spare parts often made of sheet metal. Production of such replacement parts or spare parts may require use of the original tooling that was used to form the air vehicle parts. Such original tooling may need to be located, recalled from storage, cleaned, evaluated, and often repaired before it can be used again for part production. In some cases, the original tooling cannot be located or is not serviceable, and new tooling must be fabricated for a typically limited production run of a small quantity of parts. This, in turn, may result in a high, non-recurring expense incurred to return the air vehicle to service. In addition, the lead time to fabricate the new tooling and manufacture the part may often be a long period of time, for example, greater than 200 days from design to manufacture.
Part forming processes, such as incremental sheet forming (ISF) manufacturing, may be used to manufacture such replacement or spare parts for air vehicles coming back into service. In particular, ISF manufacturing may provide decreased tooling costs and reduced lead times, as compared to other known machining or forming processes. ISF is a sheet metal forming process that uses a forming tool to deform sheet metal along a predefined tool path and to form the sheet metal into a final part. ISF tooling may be used with a computer numerical control machine or another suitable machine or system to form the sheet metal into the desired part shape.
ISF manufacturing may use known CAM (computer aided manufacturing) workbench tool path algorithms developed for machining type operations. However, while such known CAM workbench tool path algorithms may be beneficial for ISF manufacturing of parts with one central axis, they may not provide an optimal solution for parts, such as many air vehicle parts, having complex geometries with multiple central axes within the same surface.
One known CAM workbench tool path algorithm includes a Z level tool path algorithm that intersects a part design with parallel horizontal planes that are perpendicular to a tool axis. However, such Z level tool path algorithm may have issues with transitions between passes or levels of the complex part geometry. For example, a transition connection of the tool path motion may not follow the curvature or mold line of the complex part geometry, which can result in a discontinuous tool path motion. In addition, each transition to the next level of the complex part geometry typically requires the machine tool to stop and change direction causing acceleration and deceleration in transitions, which can create surface imperfections while forming on the physical part. This may, in turn, require additional surface treatment processes to remove or reduce the surface imperfections. Such additional surface treatment processes may increase the overall time and expense of the part manufacturing.
Additional known CAM workbench tool path algorithms include helix tool path algorithms and spiral tool path algorithms. Helix tool path algorithms are suitable for parts having one central axis, and spiral tool path algorithms are suitable for flat surfaces. However, helix tool path algorithms and spiral tool path algorithms may not be able to compute a calculation, and do not provide an optimal solution for parts having complex geometries with multiple central axes within the same surface.
Moreover, developing a CAM workbench tool path algorithm for ISF may have drawbacks. For example, developing a software package specific to implementing a CAM workbench tool path algorithm for ISF may be very expensive to develop and may require a lead time of two or more years from development to implementation.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for methods and systems providing a universal tool path algorithm that can be used with part forming manufacturing, such as incremental sheet forming (ISF) manufacturing, of parts having complex geometries with multiple central axes, and which methods and systems have improved capability and quality, easy implementation, and provide advantages over known methods and systems.